Free video

I did a post last week on free stock footage and I was really surprised to discover how much nice, free stuff is out there. Not long after I posted that entry, I was approached by a man offering free stock footage, if I ever needed it. Now certain shots most of us won't make, like shots from a plane for instance. But they can really add some production value to your film: like an aerial shot of a big city, for instance. So I tried downloading a few of these aerial shots.
I had some issues downloading clips with Firefox on a PC and contacted the website. The response was very fast and personal and that made me curious about the person behind the website. David Schmerin, owner of the website, has been in the business for a long time. I asked him a number of questions, among which: "Did you shoot the footage yourself?" and "How can giving away free footage be a viable business enterprise?" This is David's candid response:

Free footage (and music and more...)

Apparently there's so much free footage out there it makes you wonder why you should go out and shoot anything at all..;-) A few days ago I read about Videoblocks giving away 20 clips a day for 7 days to attract new customers. But I lost the link and while trying to retrieve it, I came across a few other sites where cheapo's like us can find free footage. Such as StockFootageForFree. No catch! There's even a Vimeo group that you can join and have access to some quality HD stuff. Now why didn't I know about that before..?! I admit I haven't tried all of them but I'm sure you can find some great material and definitely worth it if you're looking for some special footage, animations or (sound-)tracks.

Great, free vintage footage

If you are looking for unusual, historical or classical video footage, the Internet Archive is the place to go. You can download almost anything there, from old news items dating as far back as early last century, to entire movies from Hitchcock (his first 'talkie'!), to personal footage and concert registrations! There's some great stuff to be found. You name it, it's there. They offer download in various formats, amongst which Ogg, MPEG2 and MPEG4.
Many of the copyright falls under the 'Public Domain', which means that "the Work may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, used, modified, built upon, or otherwise exploited by anyone for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial, and in any way, including by methods that have not yet been invented or conceived."

This is a veritable treasure chest of film and videomaterial! Here is a great one I found from the Prelinger Archive: As Boys Grow: Sex Education for Young Males, made in 1957.  A classic...

Great free vintage footage from Filmersblog on Vimeo.